The 1.3.x series has focused on the biggest offenders in memory usage and performance problems, and Archiva 1.3.3 brings the biggest improvements yet:

Full scans should take about 1/3rd of the time and consume far less memory

Removed one-off memory hits at the end of a scan

File descriptor use during concurrent deployments are better managed

In addition, a new system status page is available for assessing the cause of potential performance issues at runtime, giving better insight into how to tune memory or scanning settings appropriately.

This work is in advance of the upcoming Archiva 1.4 release which has revived the internals more significantly, with further performance improvements and a series of new features.

It’s also worth noting that we dropped support for Archiva 1.1.x and Archiva 1.2.x in November, so there’s no reason left to remain on older versions.

I’d like to thank YourKit, who provided a free license for their profiler, which was of great assistance in tracking down these issues. I’ve used it on occasion for a number of years, and it is one of the easiest tools to use that I’ve ever encountered.

In case you’ve missed it, we’ve announced a BarCamp that will be running at the University of Sydney on Saturday 11th December, with a meal the night beforehand. It is a free event, so you just need to signup on the BarCamp wiki at http://barcamp.org/BarCampApacheSydney. You should also join the barcamp-sydney google group for updates.

The BarCamp is being run in conjunction with the Apache Software Foundation, and several Apache committers will be there proposing talks. However it is still run like a normal BarCamp, and given we haven’t had one in Sydney in the last year we’re expecting a diverse turn out. If you’re interested in BarCamps, want to know more about how the ASF develops software, or want to learn more about a particular Apache project, we hope you’ll join us! Even better, bring a topic to talk about of your own.

We’ve ensured that wifi, snacks and some other goodies will be provided on the day and are looking into options for lunch, depending on sponsorship levels.

If you’re not familiar with the format, you can find out more on the BarCamp site:

MaestroDev is pleased to be joining University of Sydney, Apache Software Foundation, Alfresco and IBM as sponsors of the event. If your company is interested in sponsoring the event, please let one of the organisers know via the details at the bottom of the BarCamp page.

Please help us to get the word out about the event. Hope to see you there!

They’ve generously offered to sponsor free copies of the Maven book for attendees to the Maven training course on November 1. However, this could be extended until today only, so that the correct number can be ordered. Please register now!

One of the attractions of writing for Packt was their involvement in open source, such as through their Open Source Royalties program, and their Open Source Awards. I’m glad to see that they’ll be at ApacheCon.

Book

Coverage of intermediate Apache Maven concepts with a focus on best practices and "tying it all together". Significant coverage of automated build and repository management concepts, illustrated using Apache Continuum and Apache Archiva.